Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, today, Representative Donald S. Beyer, Jr. and I introduced the Federal Police Camera and Accountability Act of 2019. This bill would require uniformed federal law enforcement officers to wear body cameras and marked police vehicles to have dashboard cameras. It would also require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on federal police officers' training, vehicle pursuits, use of force and interaction with citizens.

On November 17, 2017, Bijan Ghaisar was fatally shot in his car by uniformed U.S. Park Police officers in Fairfax County, Virginia; after a vehicle pursuit on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Video of this shooting only became available through a camera in a Fairfax County Police Department patrol car that was providing backup. Had it not been for that footage, which was recorded and released by that local police department, the public would not have had access to the circumstances surrounding Mr. Ghaisar's death. Moreover, the footage revealed concerns about the Park Police's pursuit and engagement policies.

Body-worn and dashboard cameras for federal law enforcement officers are particularly important for the officers stationed in the nation's capital, where Park Police and the uniformed division of the U.S. Secret Service have full local police powers. Many other federal police also have local police powers near their respective agency buildings in the District of Columbia. Cameras can increase transparency for individual interactions with police, strengthen public trust and even deter future criminal behavior. For example, when criminals know that they are being recorded by a dashboard camera, they may be less likely to flee the scene of a traffic accident because

they realize that their license plate will be documented. Criminals may also be less likely to batter an officer because the recording may be used as evidence. On the other hand, officers will also be less likely to commit offenses for the same reason. Body-worn and dashboard cameras can also be used to train current and future officers more effectively in best and worst practices.

An increasing number of local law enforcement officers, including Metropolitan Police Department officers in the District, are wearing body cameras and using dashboard cameras. It is clear that both law enforcement and the public would benefit from federal officers following suit to increase transparency and maintain public trust.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Chair, I thank my good friend for yielding.

I believe that despite the opposition from our friends on the other side, that this amendment has bipartisan support.

I thank my good friend Congressman Earl Blumenauer for introducing this important amendment with me to prohibit the Department of Justice from interfering with State cannabis programs.

I especially appreciate that Congressman Blumenauer ensured that the amendment covers the District of Columbia, as well as the territories, in prohibiting the Department of Justice from using its funds to prevent jurisdictions from implementing their own medical and adult-use marijuana laws.

The District has insisted that Congress cease interfering with our desire to commercialize adult-use marijuana, and I appreciate that D.C. is included with the other States that have the same goal.

This amendment is the breakthrough the District has long sought so that cannabis, as with all other issues, is treated, for the people who live in the Nation's capital, who pay the highest taxes per capita in the United States, with equality that is due them.

Here, with this bill, as with all other matters, we so insist.

Mr. Chair, I thank my good friend for yielding and for cosponsoring this amendment with me.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Lonnie G. Bunch III in his new position as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, one of the highest positions in the museum world. He will be the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian, responsible for 19 museums, nine research centers and the National Zoo, together employing 7,000 people with a $1.5 billion budget annually.

On June 16th, Bunch will begin his tenure as Secretary, leaving his position as the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). He is the ideal person to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the Smithsonian.

Bunch is owed the lion's share of the credit for the creation of NMAAHC. What started as a broad mandate from Congress, one staff member and no collection, NMAAHC has grown to become one of the great gems in the nation's capital. NMAAHC has had over4 million visitors since its doors opened in 2016. Bunch's political and fundraising talents brought $270 million in federal money and $317 million in private donations for NMAAHC before it opened in 2016.

Bunch began working for the Smithsonian in 1989. He spent 11 years At the National Museum of American History, where he worked, in part, as the museum's associate director for curatorial affairs. He left to work as the president of the Chicago Historical Society and later as the curator of history and program manager for the California African American Museum.

As a student, he attended American University in Washington, D.C. and received his master's and bachelor's degrees in History. He will be the first historian to be Secretary of the Smithsonian. He is also the first African American to lead the Smithsonian in its 172-year history and the first museum director to be named Secretary in 74 years.

Among Bunch's many accomplishments is writing various books, ranging from the black military experience to the American presidency to diversity in museum management. He has taught at several universities over the years, including American University and George Washington University, and has traveled both domestically and abroad for lectures and presentations.

In 2002, Bunch was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2010. In 2005, he was named one of the most influential museum professionals of the 20th century by the American Association of Museums.

Madam Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Lonnie G. Bunch III for his many achievements and in congratulating him on his new role as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Madam Speaker, today, I introduce a bill that would make a small but respectful change to federal law by adding the Mayor of the District of Columbia to the list of named principals for whom the President can order the U.S. flag be flown at half-staff. Current law states that the President shall make this order ``upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory.'' Surely the death of a current or former D.C. Mayor should qualify as a principal. My bill would add D.C. Mayors, who have the same responsibilities as state and territory governors, to the current list of officials. This bill is a continuation of our ``Free and Equal D.C.'' series to ensure fair recognition of the nearly 700,000 citizens of the District of Columbia.

Congress has already acknowledged that the District of Columbia is entitled to a place among the states for certain honors. The requested addition is not as significant as others Congress has already recognized. For example, legislation has ensured that the District of Columbia War Memorial honors only District residents who served in World War I, as intended, and that D.C.'s Frederick Douglass statue sits in the Capitol, alongside statues from the 50 states. We also successfully worked with the U.S. Postal Service to create a D.C. stamp, like the stamps for the 50 states, and worked with the National Park Service to add the D.C. flag alongside the state flags near Union Station.

Legislation was also enacted to give D.C. a coin after it was omitted from legislation creating coins for the 50 states. Legislation was

needed to require the armed services to display the District flag whenever the flags of the states are displayed. With these significant actions by Congress, it is not too much to ask to add the Mayor to the list of principals who are recognized upon their deaths.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Kojo Nnamdi and The Kojo Nnamdi Show for two decades on air with WAMU 88.5, Washington's National Public Radio news station.

No other local radio program brings the depth, sensitivity and familiarity with the important issues of the Washington, D.C. region better than The Kojo Nnamdi Show. Hosted by the universally beloved Kojo Nnamdi, the show has been at the center of critical conversations about society, community, race, housing, education, politics, the arts and more for 20 years.

While divisiveness has become the talk show norm, Nnamdi takes the time to create thoughtful dialogue--engendering trust among guests and listeners alike. Whether talking to citizens or politicians, he generates honest, productive discussions with guests, incorporating engagement with listeners.

Nnamdi makes it a priority to meet people where their lives happen-- in the community. Nnamdi's conversations in communities around the region amplify the voices of those who would not be.

A native of Guyana, Nnamdi moved to D.C. in 1969 to engage with the civil rights movement. Now a longtime D.C. resident, Nnamdi brings both a global perspective and vast knowledge of the region to front page headlines and explores emerging stories before they are news.

From 1973 to 1985, Nnamdi worked at WHUR-FM, where he served as news editor and then news director, producing the award-winning local news program The Daily Drum. From 1985 to 2011, he hosted Evening Exchange, a public affairs television program broadcast by WHUT-TV at Howard University. Nnamdi became host of a WAMU program called Public Interest in August 1998, and the name was changed to The Kojo Nnamdi Show in September 2002.

In 2001, Nnamdi was honored as a civil rights hero by the National Council for Community Justice. In 2003, the Library of Congress selected Nnamdi as the keynote speaker for African American History Month. In addition to his hosting duties, Nnamdi has chaired the board of the Public Access Corporation of Washington, D.C. for the past 25 years. In 2014, Nnamdi was inducted into the Hall of

Fame of the D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and in 2018, he was inducted into the D.C. Hall of Fame Society.

The Kojo Nnamdi Show has won numerous awards, including multiple Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and Associated Press honors, as well as the National Association of Black Broadcasters Salute to Excellence Award.

Over the years, Nnamdi has taken listeners on both intellectual and emotional journeys around the rapidly evolving Washington region. He has convened critical conversations for 20 years at the heart of change.

Madam Speaker, I ask the House to please join me in recognizing Kojo Nnamdi and The Kojo Nnamdi Show for 20 years of dedicated work in the Washington, D.C. area.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle. This event, sponsored by Giant, has become a Washington summertime tradition. It takes place in the first full week of summer each year and brings together tens of thousands of Washington area families and visitors to the nation's capital in the spirit of unity, community and celebration. This year, the celebration will take place on June 22-23, 2019.

The Giant Barbecue Battle event has raised millions of dollars for District of Columbia charities and USO-Metro over the past 26 years, along with countless donations to area food banks.

The Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle features the Giant National BBQ Championship, the National Pork BBQ Championship, the Smokin' with Smithfield Rib Contest, the Perdue Sizzlin' Chicken Contest, the Turkey

Smoke BBQ Cooking Contest, the True Aussie Lamb Contest and the Nation's Best BBQ Sauce Contest.

In honor of the event, I also want to recognize the participants, who represent some of the District's and the Nation's best BBQ talent, cooking in the spirit of competitive barbecue. Its participants have the honor of representing the District wherever other State Barbecue Cooking Championship winners are welcomed.

Madam Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle as ``The Official National Barbecue Championship and the official kick-off of summer in our Nation's Capital'' and in wishing its participants the best of luck.

Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Police Home Rule Act. This bill is necessary to eliminate the President's authority to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the local District of Columbia police department. The President has no authority to federalize any other local or state police department. Under the Home Rule Act, ``whenever the President . . . determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the [MPD] for Federal purposes, he may direct the Mayor to provide him, and the Mayor shall provide, such services of the [MPD] as the President may deem necessary and appropriate.''

Under the section of the Home Rule Act that would be repealed by this bill, the President may federalize MPD for a period of not more than 30 days, unless a resolution passed by Congress extending such federalization is enacted into law. Congress may also terminate the federalization at any time by enacting a resolution. This bill is necessary, even with these protections, because, under the principle of home rule, the President should not have control over the District's local police department.

While it does not appear that a President has exercised this authority over MPD, this latent power is totally unnecessary, should not exist and is an affront to MPD, which has always voluntarily assisted federal authorities. MPD's first responsibility is to protect District residents and visitors, and it must always remain under the authority of the D.C. Mayor to accomplish its mission. Moreover, federalization is outdated in light of current practice. MPD regularly assists the federal government as a matter of comity, not as an arm of the federal government, just as I am sure other local police departments do in the region. There are approximately 30 federal police departments under the President's control in the District. In the case of a federal emergency, the President can unilaterally deploy these federal officers, as well as the D.C. National Guard, to address it, and also request the support of our local police department, as the President would do in any other jurisdiction.

This is an important step to increase home rule for the District, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, the treatment of the Dreamers, brought to this country by their parents and others with unsettled status, is un- American and must be set right by the rational process outlined by H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019. The Dreamers have come to symbolize the entire group of individuals who have been left in the shadows, where they experience the fear of the hunted. The Dreamers have lived among us for almost their entire lives. I have invited Dreamers who live in the District of Columbia to a public meeting to talk about their lives. They are fulfilling their own dreams going to college and working in good jobs.

The shame of our failure to permanently settle the Dreamers question will not go away as long as we leave them and others living without settled legal status twisting in the wind. H.R. 6 does not pretend to settle this issue. Rather, it establishes a path to citizenship not only for Dreamers but also for Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure holders.

Never before in American history have we left any group of people in our country in legal limbo. H.R. 6 presents the ordered and predictable process this issue has long needed. These issues and these people will not go away. The House has an obligation to use our new majority to set this issue on the path to resolution.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing two District of Columbia residents, Paul Shute and Kristen P. Finne, 2019 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals finalists.

The Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies) are awarded each year to honor outstanding federal employees who have made significant contributions to our nation. In this, its 18th year, the Sammies reward efficient, effective problem solving in today's complex government. This year, two D.C. residents are among 26 other finalists for the 2019 Safety and Law Enforcement and Management Excellence categories. They were nominated by their peers, federal employees, and chosen from a pool of over 300 nominees as finalists by the Partnership for Public Service, a non-profit aimed at making the government more effective. The winners of the awards will be chosen in October 2019.

Paul Shute, a 2019 Safety and Law Enforcement finalist, cut the amount of time it takes to verify mental health claims for veterans from 60 days to 6 minutes. At a time when the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs estimates that an average of 20 veterans commit suicide every day, this innovative approach is lifesaving and critical to providing veterans with much-needed mental health benefits.

Kristen Finne, a 2019 Management Excellence finalist, developed a system for first responders to quickly locate and assist 4.3 million Medicare beneficiaries who rely on electricity-dependent medical equipment and are at risk during prolonged power outages. Finne, who works for the Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, developed and led the emPOWER Program, which consists of a database of Medicare beneficiaries and weather and geographic information to identify, locate and assist vulnerable members of the community during natural disasters.

Please join me in recognizing Paul Shute and Kristen P. Finne, finalists for the 2019 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing one of the District of Columbia's great professional musicians, Ronald Edward Holloway.

Holloway, a native Washingtonian and product of D.C. Public Schools, began playing saxophone at a young age. Early on in his career, he periodically played with the historic El Corols Band and Show of Washington, D.C. The first band that Holloway played with was a Top 40 band called The Speculations based out of Takoma Park, MD.

Holloway launched his professional career in 1975 at the age of 21. He is described by top jazz critics such as Stanley Crouch and Ira Gitler as a ``hard bearing down-hard-hopper who can blow authentic jazz, R&B and can croon a ballad with warm blue feeling, funk and rock.''

Holloway played tenor saxophone with the great Gil Scott Heron for 14 years and was a member of the world-renowned Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. He was also a guest saxophonist with Sonny Rollins, the Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule Band, Tedeschi Truck Band, Little Feat Band, and Taj Mahal. Currently, he is the director and saxophonist for his own band, The Ron Holloway Band.

Holloway, a member of the D.C. Legendary Musicians Inc., is the recipient of 42 music awards, including several Wammie awards for Musician of the Year.

I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing and honoring Ronald Edward Holloway for his steadfast dedication to promoting and preserving music in Washington, D.C.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Michael Kahn, who is stepping down from the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) after 33 years as Artistic Director, having revolutionized the performance of Shakespeare and classical theater in Washington, D.C. Kahn helped to transform D.C. theater from a small scene to the fastest growing professional theater community in the nation, renowned for its variety of theatrical productions.

Kahn believes that theater should be accessible and affordable to all, so he instituted programs such as Free For All, offering free performances of a Shakespearean classic to the general public each summer, the Happenings Happy Hour, offers free performances of local artists, musicians, and performers of a wide variety of disciplines, and the FREE WILL program, offering free tickets for every STC mainstage production in the season. Over 700,000 people have attended a free Shakespeare play, and over 90,000 young people have seen student matinee productions of classic works.

Kahn has built connections between classical theater and the political life of Washington, D.C. with contemporary and urgent productions of Shakespeare and beloved events such as the annual Mock Trial, presided over by Justices of the Supreme Court. I have had the opportunity to perform several times in Will on the Hill, a comedy performance based on Shakespeare's works featuring Members of Congress, fostering bipartisan support for arts education. STC serves students in every traditional D.C. public and public charter high school, providing in-school workshops, free supplemental materials and free or deeply subsidized tickets and transportation to theatrical performances.

Kahn's dedication to theater education can be seen through his various roles over the years, such as his tenure as Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division at the Juilliard School and his time as faculty at New York University Graduate School of the Arts, the Circle in the Square Theater School and Princeton University. He brought that expertise to Washington, D.C., where he launched the Academy for Classical Acting, a one-year master's program at The George Washington University, which has been preparing the next generation of classically trained actors for 20 years.

Kahn's visionary work has brought national and international recognition, including a Regional Theater Tony Award in 2012 for STC, and personal honors such as an induction as Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hall of Fame. During his Artistic Directorship, STC has garnered 104 Helen Hayes Awards and 442 nominations, with Kahn receiving nine wins for Outstanding Direction and an additional 12 nominations.

I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Michael Kahn for his leadership, his theatrical innovations and farsighted initiatives, and a life devoted to the theater.

Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Improvement Act of 2019. This bill would further encourage the development of important vaccines by doubling the maximum number of special masters the Court of Federal Claims can assign to vaccine cases. I am pleased to be introducing this in conjunction with Senator Bob Casey, who is introducing a companion bill in the Senate.

Vaccines are a vitally important component of our public health system. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (``Program'') was created by Congress in 1988 so that individuals and families of individuals injured by childhood vaccines could receive financial compensation. This ``no-fault'' system caps the amount of compensation allowed under the Program for vaccine-related injuries, thus meeting the dual goals of encouraging further development of vaccines and compensating anyone injured by them.

The Program was also designed to accelerate the compensation process so plaintiffs would not have to undergo a full trial before receiving damages that could potentially be used to address their injuries. However, as the number of vaccines covered under the Program has increased, so, too, has the number of cases brought before the court and the special masters. The number of petitions filed has increased from 24 in fiscal year 1988 to 1,120 in fiscal year 2016.

Congress capped the number of special masters at eight when it first authorized the Program, and has not increased the number since, despite the increase in covered vaccines and petitions filed. To meet the demand caused by the increased number of these complex cases, my bill would increase the maximum number of special masters allowed to 16. Moreover, the court may reduce the number of special masters should the number of cases drop, as this is a statutory ceiling, not a floor.

This is an important measure to ensure compensation when necessary and further important medical development. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, the House will not be in session next Monday, Memorial Day. That day has very special meaning for the 700,000 residents in the Nation's Capital.

The District of Columbia is one of the oldest jurisdictions in the United States. That means that residents of the Nation's Capital have fought and died in every war, including the war that created the United States of America: the Revolutionary War.

I have come to the House floor today to particularly recognize, on Memorial Day coming, the denial of full participation in their government through statehood, not only to the District of Columbia's residents, but to our present Active-Duty servicemembers, our National Guard members, our reservists, our many veterans and their families who are residents of the District of Columbia.

Their service and sacrifice, along with that of Americans across the breadth of this land, but especially their sacrifice, is unparalleled and, therefore, deserves special mention: unparalleled because those who served, those who died, those who continue to serve to protect our country do so without full and equal rights in their own country.

Later, I will be speaking about what their sacrifices have meant to our country, but as I come to the floor, I start by paying special tribute to the sacrifices that the residents of the Nation's Capital have made for 218 years.

I will be going, this coming week, with the Mayor of the District of Columbia, with the city council chair, with the entire government, to what is called the D.C. War Memorial. This pristine, beautiful memorial is dedicated to those who lost their lives in World War I.

It is the only memorial--indeed, it is the only edifice--on The Mall that is dedicated to people in one district, and for very good reason: because that district is our Nation's Capital; because those whose names appear on that memorial--I think there are 400- or so names--died without full representation and died giving that kind of representation, the kind of democracy, the kind of democracy that others have.

Our country, of course, prides itself on its democratic traditions, but we must remember that the country was founded seeking democracy, not as a democracy.

When it was founded, only White men who held property could vote. That means that the majority then could not vote and did not have their democratic rights. So we have to, with some humility, approach our own standing as a democracy. May I remind us all today that it took 132 years after the Nation's founding for women to get the right to vote.

When half the population didn't have the right to vote, I am sure Members came to this House floor saying what a wonderful democracy it was. Well, it wasn't.

What is important about our country is our aspiration to become the democracy that the Framers themselves hoped we would come--they hoped we would become because even they had created a constitution where an African American was counted as three-fifths of a man. That was a compromise.

They created this country knowing, believing, that those of us who sit in this House, in the Senate, and Americans throughout the country would make our democracy a real democracy over time.

It has taken 218 years, and still counting, for the District of Columbia and its residents to achieve statehood, including voting rights and all the rights that come with equal citizenship.

We are the only democracy in the world where the residents who live in the Nation's Capital don't have the same rights as everyone else in that country.

I am not pessimistic today. We are just 5 months into the new Congress, and we are already beginning to break ground with those old traditions.

In March, the House passed H.R. 1, as we call it. That is our all- democracy, prodemocracy bill, still trying to achieve full democracy throughout the United States. I will say a bit about H.R. 1 shortly.

It has findings, extensive findings for D.C. statehood, which means, since it passed by more than a majority, that most Members of the House are already on track and on the Record for D.C. statehood.

I am grateful that Speaker Nancy Pelosi 3 days into the new term issued a very powerful statement, the head of the House, endorsing statehood.

I am grateful to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who unveiled a sweeping proposal to bring democracy to our country. His proposal is interesting because it included only three issues: combating voter disenfranchisement through the Voting Rights Act, establishing national automatic voter registration laws; and the third one, support of D.C. statehood.

I think that says a great deal about what the priority of bringing full democracy to the Nation's Capital means to the Nation.

I am grateful to Chairman Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, who has announced that he will hold a hearing on D.C. statehood and will bring the bill to the floor this year.

It is worth hearing a few words from Speaker Pelosi, to show the commitment of our party to full democracy.

The Speaker said: ``The right to vote and to equal representation is the foundation of our freedom and a core pillar of our democracy. For too long, the residents of the District of Columbia have served our Nation in uniform, paid taxes, and contributed to the economic power and success of our country while being denied the full enfranchisement that is their right.''

I am encouraged today because while it takes 218 votes to pass the D.C. statehood bill, already 5 months into this new majority, we have 204 cosponsors. We are very grateful and very proud of that very strong showing of support for democracy in the Nation's Capital.

To elaborate a bit on the significance of being in H.R. 1, which documented findings for why the District of Columbia should have statehood, to put that in context, just look at the other matters that were in this enhancing democracy bill, because they didn't have anything to do with D.C. statehood.

And yet, D.C. statehood is in this enhancing democracy bill, which includes such matters as supporting the adoption of paper ballots to protect our election infrastructure from cyberattacks, increasing donor disclosure requirements, strengthening campaign oversight, expanding early voting and voting by mail, ending partisan gerrymandering, requiring all Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates to publicly disclose their tax returns--until this President. For decades, others have, of course.

You can see those issues are about enhancing democracy in the larger sense. It says everything about the priority of this Congress that H.R. 1 also includes making sure that the residents of the Nation's Capital have the same and, indeed, equal rights with other Americans.

We are well on our way to nationalizing the fight to D.C. statehood, nationalizing, because my one frustration, that we have faced and continue to face, that most residents, most Americans, think that those who live in their Nation's Capital have the same rights they have. That is what I mean by the need to nationalize this important issue.

What polls show is that it is inconceivable to the average American that there would be any Americans who don't have the same rights that they have. Of course, that is the case.

That is why, periodically, I come to the floor to make sure and remind the House of this anomaly, that we are the only country that does not give those

who live in its capital the same rights as others in their country.

I am heartened by the many national organizations that, as I speak, have come on to endorse statehood for the District of Columbia.

As I was, literally, coming to the House floor, a staff member rushed behind me to add another one. It is up to 20.

I will bet by the time I get back to my office in the Rayburn Building, the number will be even beyond 20 because they have been coming on ever since we put out the word. They represent millions of people and can help Americans to know what they do not know.

These are the national organizations that by the time I came to the House floor had endorsed D.C. statehood: Common Cause, Public Citizen, National Active and Retired Employees Association, Sierra Club, People For the American Way, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Planned Parenthood, Demand Justice, Indivisible, Americans for Democratic Action, Demos, NORML, NETWORK, Stand Up America, Demand Progress, United Food and Commercial Workers, Democratic Coalition, National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, and Human Rights Campaign.

These are organizations whose numbers go into the many millions that can help us by making sure Americans know what many would be ashamed to find out, that they live in a country where people who live in their Nation's Capital don't have the same rights they have.

What a diverse city this is, about half Black, half White, many high- income people--yes, its share of poor people like every city--top 10 in economic growth, bursting at the seams with more people moving in every day, the kind of National Capital Americans have every right to be proud of.

Until Democrats captured this House, even our self-government, the right to govern ourselves in the District of Columbia, was under attack. I had to fight off bills that eliminate important laws in the District of Columbia. What did they have to say about our local laws?

For example, a favorite has been attempts to wipe out all the gun safety laws in the District of Columbia. I have been able to defeat these bills--almost all of them--even while I have been in the minority.

But why should I have to come to this floor to say to Members of the House that these are local matters?

This is a national body. Stay out of our business.

There were laws that would have repealed our Local Budget Autonomy Act, where we deal only with spending matters resident alone pay for.

A law they tried to erase a recreational marijuana. Ten states allow recreational marijuana, which the House has allowed.

They tried to wipe out abortions for low-income women. They tried to wipe out our Death with Dignity Act. These, of course, are rather progressive matters.

Death with dignity, for example, after seeking the advice of a physician, and with only 6 months to live, allows people to take their own lives, with pharmaceuticals provided by a physician. That is not the case for every jurisdiction.

By the way, the majority of American people support this right. But if you disagree with it, Congress can't do anything about it anywhere else, only in the District of Columbia.

I could name several other bills. We were able to defeat all of these bills away except two. One is the marijuana commercialization act. We were able to save the ability to possess 2 ounces but not to do what those 10 states already do, which is to regulate it and tax it.

Marijuana should be regulated, not just sold. Why does the House not want that? Of course, to sell and legally tax marijuana, if you don't do that, people will smoking marijuana anyway.

We have six universities here. Do you think people aren't smoking pot?

The Republican priority has always been local control. That is their mantra. They even want the Federal Government often out of the business that the Federal Government must be in.

We have indicated that we would like that mantra to apply to the District of Columbia as well.

At the same time, we are on a dual track. At the same time that we are trying to get statehood, we have not gotten full control of our own city because the Congress, as I have just indicated, can intervene.

So, at the same time that we are trying to get statehood, which would do the whole thing, we are also trying to use the Home Rule Act simply to get what every other jurisdiction has: a local prosecutor, for example; the right to declare clemency for local residents, local control of local courts, etc.

So we are on two tracks: statehood, which would give us the whole set of rights that the rest of the country has; and using the Home Rule Act--and the District has had home rule since 1973--simply getting the kinds of rights that do not require statehood but that other jurisdictions have passed locally.

I have gotten three bills passed this term. I got them passed in the first 3 months. And note that, even when I was in the minority in the last Congress--I was voted the most effective Democrat in the Congress. The commentary noted that Norton--does not have the final vote on the House floor.

I got back my vote in the Committee of the Whole. I now vote for the District of Columbia when the House meets in the Committee of the Whole. I was able to get that right when I first came to Congress.

And if this is believable, when the Democrats lost the House, Republicans took back even that vote, the DC vote in the Committee of the Whole, even though it had been approved by the courts of the United States. It was granted by the House; therefore, it could be taken away by the House. It was taken away by the House before.

Getting full and equal rights for the District of Columbia is personal to me because I am a native Washingtonian--indeed, a third- generation Washingtonian.

I cannot help but tell the story of my great-grandfather, a runaway slave from Virginia. He came to the District of Columbia when they still had slavery, when, of course, it didn't have any home rule or statehood.

The District was being built. This Capitol building was being built. Work was being done on the streets, and people were anxious to hire anybody they could find. Richard Holmes got a job working on the streets of the District of Columbia.

And passed down to my family is what happened to Richard Holmes. Richard Holmes that continues to inspire me, even as I am inspired by our veterans as we approach Memorial Day.

Richard Holmes was working on the streets of the District of Columbia, where slave owners roamed the streets, because, after all, valuable property was lost if there was a runaway slave that could be identified.

A man walked up behind Richard Holmes and called out the name ``Richard.'' Richard Holmes kept digging. Then the slave owner went over to the straw boss and said, ``That is my slave. I have come to take him back.'' And the straw boss said, ``Well, that man didn't answer to that name,'' and he let Richard Holmes stay.

I think Richard Holmes must have been a good worker, so he just wasn't going to give him up. I don't know that. All I know is that he did not give him up, and the Holmes family has been very grateful ever since.

This has been the most important destination, not only for people like my great-grandfather who simply walked off of a plantation in Virginia. In telling the story, you will note that I didn't speak about Richard Holmes as some heroic runaway slave, because that is not how the story was told to us. We were told that Richard Holmes simply walked off that plantation when nobody was looking and walked all the way to the District of Columbia from way down in Virginia.

In a real sense, I feel like I am walking. I am continuing in his footsteps as I strive to help my city become the 51st State, no longer be a city where there is taxation without representation.

Imagine the outrage. This is not a Congress which likes taxes, particularly my Republican friends. Well, a lot of us have owned up to the fact that it became a great country because all of us pitched in, including paying Federal

taxes. But imagine paying Federal taxes when you don't have anything to say about the amount of those taxes or anything else about those taxes.

Imagine being number one per capita in Federal taxes to support your country and yet having no final vote on this House floor when those taxes are raised, when, for example, there has been a massive tax cut that went to the great benefit, as it turned out, of corporations and the very well-off.

For the District of Columbia, I could speak on that bill but I could not vote on that bill, even though I represent those who will pay the highest amount in taxes pursuant to that bill.

So taxation without representation is not simply a slogan for the people I represent. It has real meaning, as real for us as it did for the Framers. They were willing to risk treasonous acts in order not to pay taxes without representation.

As the United States stands, today as a Nation, we are in violation of treaties the United States has signed because we do not grant full and equal rights to the residents of the Nation's Capital.

For example, our country, in 1977, signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Human Rights Committee, which has oversight over that treaty, has since said that the United Nations delegation to the U.N. `` . . . remains concerned that residents of the District of Columbia do not enjoy full representation in Congress, a restriction which does not seem to be compatible with article 25 of the covenant,'' the covenant that the United States has signed, in violation of all our country stands for and in violation of international law.

So, as this Memorial Day comes, I come to the floor simply to remind my colleagues of what it means for those of us who live in our Nation's Capital. Even though on this Memorial Day we recall the Memorial Days that have gone ahead, commemorating the residents of this city who have fought and died in every war, I believe we should particularly note the first African American general, who happened to be born and raised in the District of Columbia; the first African American Air Force general, who was born and raised in the District of Columbia; the first African American Naval Academy graduate, born and raised in the District of Columbia; and the first African American Air Force Academy graduate, born and raised in the District of Columbia.

I cite these African Americans because they served, all of them, when the District was a segregated city. And when I say the District was a segregated city, understand that this was a majority-White city and has been a majority-White city for most of its 218 years as a city.

And yet African Americans and Whites have been treated in exactly the same way, as second-class and perhaps worse.

On Monday, the last Monday in May, Memorial Day will mean perhaps more to the residents of our Nation's Capital than anywhere else, and particularly to our veterans who are still living here. We cannot help but remember that in World War I the District lost more lives than three States.

And, therefore, on Memorial Day, 2019, as I remember at our casualties, I speak on this House floor for every resident, for every veteran, and, I believe, for every American when I say all Americans, those who live, those who have died, and those who continue to serve, are entitled to full and equal rights.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 1 o'clock and 41 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Friday, May 24, 2019, at 11 a.m.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in remembering the life of Ellen Odellas Van Edwards, a native Washingtonian and my former classmate at Dunbar High School.

On May 11, 2019, Ellen Odellas Van Edwards passed away in the arms of her daughter L. Robin V. Smith, while listening to praise and worship music. Throughout Van Edward's life, she brought joy to the District of Columbia community as a wife, mother and grandmother; a dedicated employee at the Department of Commerce; and later as ``Hajji the Magic Clown''.

Van Edwards was born in Washington, D.C. and attended Dunbar High School. We graduated together in 1955, the year before the school was desegregated. After graduating from Dunbar, Van Edwards attended the Atlantic Business College and earned her bachelor's degree in Business. She went on to work at the Department of Commerce for 42 years in the Office of the Secretary and the U.S. Patent office, where she was an administrative assistant and the first African American woman to work for the U.S. Board of Patent Appeals. She also worked in the International Affairs division.

Van Edwards lost her husband in 1974 and raised her two daughters, L. Robin V. Smith and Adriene Jordan, alone. Bringing light to a time of sadness, she became ``Hajji the Magic Clown.'' She completed clown class at Montgomery College and magic class at Catholic University. She shared her talent with children around Washington, D.C. and used her clowning abilities to win Ms. Senior District of Columbia.

On June 29, 2003, at the age of 66, Van Edwards was crowned the 21st Ms. Senior District of Columbia. She proudly represented D.C.'s other senior citizens for one year, encouraging them to live active lives. She was said to have won the crown by exemplifying ``the dignity, maturity and inner beauty of senior Americans.''

I ask the House of Representatives to join me in remembering the life of Ellen Van Edwards.